Gaetano Gandolfi
Italian, 1734–1802
Ulysses Before Circe, Mercury Behind
INV-2022
Gaetano Gandolfi
Italian, 1734–18021766
Ulysses Before Circe, Mercury Behind
Gaetano Gandolfi Italian, 1734–1802 →drawings (visual works)chalk
Date
1766
Medium
Red chalk, with touches of wetted red chalk, on cream laid paper
Dimensions
49.9 × 35.9 cm (19 11/16 × 14 3/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
In this scene, Gaetano Gandolfi illustrated the moment from Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey when the hero violently confronts the enchantress Circe, who has transformed his men into swine. In the left foreground, several of Circe’s hybrid victims seem to be in the process of transforming back into men, while behind Ulysses the god Mercury ascends through an arch.
The drawing is a tour de force of compositional invention and technical skill, alive with energy and balletic form. Gandolfi’s expert use of the uncolored paper to express dramatic lighting in particular gives the work a kind of radiance.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
![Bust of a Saint [St. Peter]](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/4aabb6a3-67b6-7191-3f53-c8ca0f63538c/full/400,/0/default.jpg)